The Parallel 34 list
First pour, first word
New arrivals from the four houses, winemaker dinners, and the nights the flight changes — sent by us, not by anyone else.
A few emails a year. Unsubscribe any time. Renzo's Restaurant Group.
Mendoza, Argentina
The house that kept Malbec in the ground, and then took it up the mountain. Four generations in Mendoza, and the single vineyard most often called the Grand Cru of South America.
Nicola Catena planted the first vines in 1902. Four generations later the house is still family-run: third-generation Nicolás Catena Zapata drove the modern era, fourth-generation Dr. Laura Catena is managing director, and Alejandro Vigil is winemaking director.
Nicolás Catena's turning point was a sabbatical at UC Berkeley in 1982. Tasting Napa Cabernet convinced him Argentina could compete on quality rather than volume. He went home, reversed the industry's volume-first model, and rescued Malbec at a moment when growers were tearing it out of the ground.
Planted at roughly 1,450 metres in Gualtallary in 1992, when the settled wisdom was that grapes would not ripen that high. The parcels are named for what is in the soil — White Bones, calcareous earth laced with fossilised bones from an ancient riverbed; White Stones; River Stones. It holds more 100-point ratings than any other South American vineyard.
#1 World's Best Vineyard 2023, inducted into that list's Hall of Fame in 2024. Wine Enthusiast New World Winery of the Year 2010. Nicolás Catena was Decanter Man of the Year 2009.
Bottle prices. The list moves with the season — see the full wine list for everything open tonight.
Catena Appellation Series Malbec is $34 a bottle during happy hour and all day on Malbec Mondays only. Outside those two windows it is at its regular list price. It is also one of the four pours in the $34 Flight of the Parallel, which runs all hours.
New arrivals from the four houses, winemaker dinners, and the nights the flight changes — sent by us, not by anyone else.
A few emails a year. Unsubscribe any time. Renzo's Restaurant Group.
104 2nd Street South, downtown St. Petersburg. Catena Zapata is on the list every night.